The Shock of Waking Up
by CrystalEarth
Summary: Mal's POV from finding River in the cryo chamber to Simon explaining his situation. Spoilers for the episode Serenity. sorry for the short summary. one-shot.


****Disclaimer: i don't own Firefly or any of the characters. no copywrite is intended.

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**The Shock of Waking Up**

"I want to know what is going on here." Inara said.

"Well then why don't we find out?" I responded. I wanted to know what the hell was in that package that the boy had brought on the ship, what he had felt was more important then little Kaylee's life.

I walked purposefully out of the infirmary.

"What are you… NO! No!" I heard the Doc rushing after me but didn't much care at the moment "Stay away from that- AH!" I guessed that someone grabbed the doc to stop him, most likely Jayne.

"Where's the fed?" I asked him.

"Secured. Shepherd's with him. Seems to think he's not safe alone with me."

I began to open the box and heard the doc say again "No."

I stood up and turned to him, giving him an angry glare and took pleasure at the desperate look on his face. "Well… Let's see what a man like you would kill for."

Right before I kicked off the lid of the box the doctor said again "NO DON'T!"

I ignored him, with the lid off a cold fog came out of the box. When the fog cleared the naked form of a young girl was revealed. The only response I could think of was "Huh!"

So the good doctor had bought a slave girl for his own pleasure. She was pretty, she had a slim figure and her dark hair went well with her skin tone, but it angered me that she had been asleep in a cryo chamber, she probably didn't even know what the hell was going on. She would wake up confused and terrified.

The Doc tried to make his way over to her when Jayne grabbed him. "I need to check her vitals!"

"Oh is that what they call it?" I said angrily, I hated slavery and this kid had just put my people in danger because he brought her on the ship. Not that it was her fault.

"She's not supposed to wake up for another week the shock-"

"The shock of what? Waking up? Finding out she'd been sold to some border world Barron?" he looked angry. "Or- I'm sorry, was this one for you? is it true love? Because you do seem a little-"

A very feminine scream behind me made me jump and take a few steps back. The girl had woken up. She continued to scream and look around as she crawled out of the cryo chamber.

She pressed her back against it and covered her face with one hand and began whimpering, Jayne let go of the Doc then, and the Doc went to the young girl "R-River" he said in a shaky but calm voice.

The girl was still whimpering and he said "It's okay! It's okay! It's okay I'm here."

The girl looked at him for a moment and then she whispered "Simon?"

I wondered then if maybe the Doc and the girl had a relationship of some sort, she seemed to know him and calm down with him but then she panicked again "Simon they- they talk to me! They- they want me to-"

"They're gone! They're gone! They're gone! We're safe now! We're safe! We're safe, I'm here" the doc said to calm her down before he pulled her into a hug as she began sobbing on his shoulder

After a moment I asked the Doc "what the hell is this?"

He looked at me then with a look of fear in his eyes "This is my sister."

Inara gave the young girl her robe so that River was no longer naked and then the Doc took his sister to the infirmary.

Two hours later, after his sister had been taken care of and fallen asleep, the Doc came to the kitchen, where all of us, with the exception of Kaylee, were waiting for him to give us an explanation.

He stood in front of all of us nervously and finally he began to speak.

"I am very smart. I went to the best medacad on Osiris. Top three percent of my class. Finished my internship in 8 months. _"Gifted"_ is the term. So when I tell you that my little sister makes me look like an idiot child… I want you to understand my full meaning. River was more than gifted she- she was a gift. Everything she did: music, math theoretical physics, even- even dance- there was nothing that didn't come as naturally to her as breathing does to us."

I took a deep breath and waited for the boy to get to the point.

"There was a… a school… a uh… government- sponsored academy. We had never even heard of it but it had the most exciting program, the most challenging. We could have sent her anywhere. We had the money, but… she wanted to go. She wanted to learn. She was 14. I uh… I got a few letters at first and then I didn't hear for months. Finally I got a letter that made no sense. She… she talked about things that never happened. Jokes that we never- it was a code. It just said… _They're hurting us. Get me out._"

There was a brief pause while we let that sink in.

"How'd you do it?" Zoe asked him

"Money. And- and luck. For two years I couldn't get near her. Then I was contacted by an underground movement, they said the government was… playing with her brain."

I took a deep breath and let the meaning of what that might mean come to the forefront of my head. They had done something to that girl, something that, no doubt, was traumatizing. She was one of their own, a fourteen year old girl from a rich family on a core planet, and they still did it to her. And, while I was still angry about his threat to let Kaylee die if we turned him over, suddenly I could understand it.

He had given up his life, his home, everything… to save his little sister from the Alliance. If it were Kaylee, I would have done the same as him: whatever it took to get her back and keep her safe.

But I had to wonder: what had they done to her? And would she be able to be sane after what they did?

There was a part of me that wanted to help them make sure that they stayed safe, they deserved it. But another part of me wanted to kill the doc for bringing this trouble down on us.

So I came to the decision that, if Kaylee came through, I would drop them off at Whitefall and never look back on them again.

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alright! i really had to write this. its been poking at my mind for a week. i wanted to write what i thought was going through Mal's head throughout that entire scene! mostly because his facial expressions were interesting to me. let me know if you like it or hate it please.


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